


Christmas Really Hurts this Time

by SaphiralovesTolkien



Series: 25 Days Till Christmas Fanfiction Countdown [13]
Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe?, Author Is Sleep Deprived, Character Death, Christmas Themed, F/M, Gen, Original Character(s), Post-Movie 2: Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, The Author Regrets Nothing, Tissue Warning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-15
Updated: 2018-12-15
Packaged: 2019-09-18 16:32:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16998579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaphiralovesTolkien/pseuds/SaphiralovesTolkien
Summary: Post-Movie 2, Theseus has been throwing himself into work to try and forget what happened in Paris, but it all comes out when he's forced to vacation with his little brother and his friends.





	Christmas Really Hurts this Time

**Author's Note:**

> So, a lot has happened since Wednesday, as many of you are aware this is Thursday's fic, not Saturday's and I am extremely behind on writing these things which I warned you about. However, I wasn't prepared for my friend finding out on Thursday that it looked like her grandfather wasn't going to make it through the night. It was really sudden and she didn't get to go home till Friday, so she was a mess, and everyone else was a mess and that night was just a mess. And Friday wasn't any better, packing, dropping people off at train stations and airports, saying tearful goodbyes to friends, it was sad and on top of it all, I got turned around trying to go home from the airport. That was a long explanation and excuses for these fics not getting released on time, I'll try and catch up tomorrow, but I may be a day behind of a little bit until I can really sit down and just write.   
> Anyway, you all probably don't care about my problems or excuses and just want to read this.  
> Day 13: It’s Character A’s first Christmas since a tragedy  
> This is appropriate for what's been happening lately and no, I didn't plan it, God works in mysterious ways.  
> Betaed by Grammarly.  
> I don't own anything obvious.  
> OC.  
> Don't like, don't read.  
> Alright, now you can enjoy!

> I’m not going to lie.  
> Christmas really hurts this time  
> Cause you’re not here to celebrate with me.  
> Tears fill my eyes.  
> And memories flood my mind,

It was December 13th, and the world was still standing, but Theseus was crumbling. 

Its only been three months since Leta...since she...since Theseus failed to save her from Grindelwald. He hasn’t had time to properly mourn her death with everything else that had to happen first, saving Paris, freeing Dumbledore, making sure Newt was okay, going to ministery meetings, and writing numerous reports. Theseus had taken to the nonstop work with vigor; it helped to take his mind off Leta because he knew if he stopped for even a moment to think about her, he would crumble.

Theseus was planning never to stop working, and it probably would have worked too if the Minister of Magic hadn’t forced him to take a vacation for the holidays. Theseus hadn’t been able to stand going home where all her stuff was still strewn everywhere since she had last been home which meant he was currently rooming with his brother, his pet muggle, his eccentric mentor, and the maledictus they seemed to have adopted, not to mention the numerous beasts that lived underneath the house. 

At first, Theseus had been fine, instead of throwing himself into work he had thrown himself into reacquainting himself with his younger brother, as well as getting to know the muggle-Jacob he had to remind himself-, Dr. Vivian Winterthrop, and the maledictus, Nagini. However as the days rolled by it got harder and harder to not think about Leta, especially when Newt would talk about the American Auror with that slightly dreamy look he only usually got when discussing a creature, until one day it all came crumbling down. 

Theseus had been helping Newt and the others to clean out the suitcase, as Vivian had said that it needed a good wash because she swore it had a funky smell. Vivian had taken control of “operation clean the case” as Jacob had coined it and had assigned everyone a job. Seeing as the case needed a deep clean, all the creatures were required to move inside the house, Vivian appointed Jacob and Nagini to the more docile creatures and assigned herself and Newt to the larger more dangerous ones. To Theseus, she had assigned cleaning the shed where Newt kept anything important that pertained to his creatures. 

Theseus was pretty sure she had assigned him this particular cleaning job because she didn’t trust him with one of her precious creatures, plus the shed was an absolute mess and completely disorganized, so the doctor figured, him being an Auror, he could put it in order. So, while Newt and the rest dealt with fantastic creatures, he was assigned to paperwork. Theseus almost made a comment about the suitcase and the creatures inside belonging to Newt, but his brother and the others didn’t seem to mind the orders, and actually, Newt looked eager to have the chance to work with his mentor again.  

So, Theseus organized dozens of papers and bottles of things he didn’t want to know about while the others moved magic creatures up the ladder and into the house. Theseus was glad that Vivian had the foresight to move the shed away from the entrance so that he didn’t have to deal with creatures stomping through the room and messing up his carefully arranged piles. Theseus was glad he was assigned this job, Newt may be an exceptionally gifted Magizoologist, but he was absolute rubbish at organizing. 

It was toward the end of the day, and the last of the creatures were being sent up, and Theseus was almost done when he uncovered it. At first, Theseus hadn’t been aware it was a photograph; he thought it was some other object that was somehow related to magical beasts, so he had pushed it aside. It was only when a particular excited Erumpet had trampled past and had knocked against the side of the shed causing the picture to fall, did Theseus honestly see it.

It was a picture of Leta. It was obviously a picture taken many years earlier, probably from her Hogwarts days, but all the same, it was Leta looking vibrant and mischevious and very much alive. Theseus sat down slowly on the single chair in the shed and stared down at the photo blankly, he hadn’t thought of her in weeks, had tried very hard not to, but it had all built up and was now pushing on a very fragile wall. The picture smiled, and the wall broke. 

* * *

 

Nagini watched from the bottom of the ladder as the last of the magical creatures disappeared into the house. When she had first been invited to tag along with the two Magizoologists and the muggle she had thought they would put her down here with the rest of the beasts, she was, after all, a maledictus. However, when she had tentatively asked where in the suitcase she would be sleeping, the three had given her weird looks and started talking all at once about how if she wanted to sleep in the case that would be fine but wouldn’t she be much more comfortable up here in a bed? 

That was when Nagini began to understand that not all wizards and witches saw her for her blood curse, some saw her as human and had no qualms about treating her like one. Nagini still hadn’t been too sure about where she fit in the household among the assortment of awe-inspiring magical creatures, the two wizards who studied them, and the muggle who had resisted obliviation. It wasn’t until a late night when she was playing with the Kelpie who had taken a liking to her, that she learned Dr. Vivian wasn’t human either. She was an elf who didn’t fit in either the magical world or the elven world and so, had carved out her own world. 

After that night and the long talk the two had, Nagini felt much better about her situation, yes it still hurt that Credence had chosen Grindelwald over her, but for the first time since, she could see a brighter future. Even when Newt’s older brother, the Auror, came to stay, she didn’t feel self-conscious of who she was. Actually, Newt’s brother, while being a little stoic and awkward in the beginning, tried to get to know her and Jacob. He made an effort to greet her and everyone else every morning and to hold somewhat awkward conversations throughout the day. Nagini found it sweet and not at all annoying as Vivian did. 

So when Jacob called down that the everyone was out of the case except Theseus, she replied that she would find him and bring him up so that the cleaning could begin. When Nagini found him, she thought he had fallen asleep, at first glance he was hunched over and didn’t look like he was moving. But when Nagini got closer, she saw that his shoulders were shaking, and he was hunching over something in his hands. She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do, should she call Newt or Vivian or even Jacob? Any of them were much better equipped to deal with this than her, but Newt and Vivian were dealing with the creatures and Jacob didn’t know Theseus well, neither did she for that matter, but she felt that out of everyone she was the best one to deal with this.

“Theseus?” She called quietly, trying not to startle him and failing.

He jumped and swiftly looked up to reveal that yes, he had been crying and for a while too by the looks of it. Not only that, but the object he had been hunched over was a photograph, an old one by the looks of it, but Nagini still recognized the person, it was Theseus’ fiance, the one who had sacrificed herself to save them all. She should really get Newt, he was Theseus’ brother, but yet again, Newt was incredibly awkward especially when it came to emotions. No, it looked liked she would have to handle it on her own. 

“Theseus,” she called again, “are you done organizing? All of the creatures are out, and they’re ready to start cleaning.”

Instead of responding to the question, he asked something completely different, “How do you deal with being away from the person you love so well?”

Nagini blinked, she hadn’t been expecting the conversation to take this turn, “I...I’ve never really had someone to love before, and I don’t even know if I really love him.”

“Sorry, forget I asked,” said Theseus roughly, standing up and wiping his face, “let's go before Vivian yells at us or sends her dragon down.”

“No wait,” said Nagini stepping in front of him, “I wasn’t finished. It doesn’t matter if I love Credence or not, it still hurts that he left, that he chose to leave me. You feel like it’s your fault right? Like if only you had done something she would still be here.”

Theseus nodded, “If I had gotten to her a little sooner, or if I had realized what she was doing or that she was even there, then maybe I could have saved her, maybe she would still be here with me.”

He looked down, choking up on the last words. Nagini hesitated briefly before putting a hand on his arm, “I feel the same way, if only I had known Credence was thinking of joining Grindelwald, or if only I had been able to convince him that learning what family he was born into didn’t matter maybe he could be here celebrating my first Christmas. But in the end, it was his choice to make; he decided to join Grindelwald, he decided to leave me. Your Fiance chose to save you and everyone else; I included, she decided to stand up against Grindelwald, to stand with you and not with him. Like I keep telling Jacob, in the end, it was their choices, no one made their decisions for them, no one used a curse to force them, they decided out of their own free will. And we have to live with that. Does it hurt? Yes, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned since coming to live here, it’s never to look back, what happened, happened and there is no going back to change it. You can only move forward. If you’d like, you can join Jacob and mine’s midnight hot chocolate and scones meeting, we talk about how we’re dealing with everything and how the week has been, but mostly we tell each other stories about Credence and Queenie. You can come if you’d like, we meet Wednes-oomf.”

Nagini wasn’t able to finish her sentence as she was being engulfed in a warm and slightly wet hug.

“Thank you,” Theseus whispered into her hair, “I’d like to come.”

It was December 13th, and the world was still standing, and Theseus was still sad, but his world was no longer crumbling, it looked to be rebuilding. 

**Author's Note:**

> The song is the same one as the 12th day's, so go there for the title and who it's by.  
> Night!


End file.
